The present invention relates to patient monitors for monitoring the physiological condition of a patient, in particular networked patient monitors.
One of the most important tasks of bedside patient monitoring is the generation of alarms. If, as shown in a typical example in FIG. 1, a plurality of bedside monitors BEDi (with i=1 to 16 in FIG. 1) are connected via a network 20, an alarm status of each bedside monitor BEDi can be distributed to a central station 30 or to any other of the bedside monitors BEDi. The central station 30 is normally located remote from the bedside monitors BEDi.
The central station 30 typically allows displaying status and real time data of all or a subset of the connected bedside monitors BEDi. The central station 30 further generally allows to view one individual bedside monitor BEDi in greater detail provided in a specific window, as e.g. by the Patient Window of the Agilent Information Center of Agilent Technologies. The Remote Link product of Agilent Technologies allows remotely viewing information from different bedsides similar to a central station e.g. in a doctor""s office. It does not trigger any alarms, but displays patient status in a comprehensive overview (color coded boxes), and similar to a central station allows to overview more data of a single bed in a window.
As depicted in FIG. 2, existing networked bedside monitors BEDi usually provide a display 100 showing data, such as alarms and/or measured data, from the local bedside monitor BEDi. Data of another (remote) bedside monitor BEDj (with jxe2x89xa0i) can be selected by means of buttons 110 (e.g. soft or hard keys) and displayed in a pop-up window 120 generally overlapping the data display of the local bedside monitor BEDi. Alternatively, the pop-up window 120 and an alarm tone can appear when another bedside monitor BEDj goes into an alarming state. A manual navigation scheme generally allows viewing other bedside monitors BEDi independent of an alarming situation.
Although the existing bedside monitors already provide precious tools for monitoring a patient""s physiological condition, it is still required to further improve patient monitoring, in particular in networked applications.
The object is solved by the independent claims. Preferred embodiments are shown by the dependent claims.
The invention provides a way of helping clinical staff to assess the status of a plurality of patients at one glance by permanently presenting the status of a plurality of bedside monitors on a reserved area of each bedside monitor. This status information is provided continuously and independently of an alarming situation. Preferably, the reserved area for this status information is displayed in a side area of the monitor display and/or separated from other data to be displayed (such as data from a local or remote bedside monitor). Thus, the invention allows providing a comprehensive overview over the related bedside monitors without disturbing local operations or data monitoring, e.g. by pop-up windows covering or overlapping the data display.
The term xe2x80x9crelated monitorsxe2x80x9d as used herein shall represent a plurality of monitors connected with each other, e.g. by means of a data network, thus allowing a data communication between the monitors. Accordingly, the term xe2x80x9cmonitorxe2x80x9d as used herein shall represent any kind of patient monitor applicable for monitoring physiological information of a patient.
By displaying a continuous status information for related bedside monitors, the invention overcomes a disadvantage of conventional bedside monitors, which normally only render available information about other bedside monitors in case of an alarm or after a user interaction, however always only the information of one bedside monitor is displayed at the same time. Furthermore, the invention preferably allows providing such status information generally without overlapping other data display.
For fully appreciating the contribution of the invention, it has to be understood that although a patient monitor might resemble a conventional computer to a certain degree, the patient monitor still represents a measuring device. The main purpose of a measuring device, however, is to measure data and make the measured data available e.g. by displaying the measured data. Therefore, it is important for measuring devices that essential information will be made available and is not accidentally suppressed e.g. by being overlapped. This is in particular of relevance for patient monitoring where a patient""s physiological signals are monitored and where a not-showing of vital information can cause serious harm to the patient. A continuous display of status information also of other related bedside monitors, however without interfering with the selected display therefore represents a significant improvement for patient monitoring applications.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, an area of a screen of a patient monitor is allocated for displaying the status information in an overview area. The overview area remains preferably allocated permanently or at least as long as defined by the respective application or by a user. The remaining area of the screen can be used for displaying other kind of information, e.g. to show data of the local patient connected to the respective patient monitor, or to view (e.g. in greater detail) information from other patient monitors, but also for increasing the overview area.
The location and the size of the overview area depend on the specific screen configurations. It is also clear that the overview area needs not necessarily be a static area fixed to a certain location, but is also moveable along the screen. However, the overview area is preferably spatially separated from the other display areas and will preferably not or only temporarily overlap or be overlapped therewith.
The overview area allows to concurrently display the status of other patient monitors connected to that patient monitor e.g. via a network. This status of other patient monitors is preferably displayed using symbols, codes or pictograms. Alternatively or in addition thereto, this status information can also be provided with alphanumerical text fields, e.g. for indicating a specific alarming state or the other patient""s name.
In a preferred embodiment, the size of the overview area can be further increased in order to display more or more detailed information about one or more of the other related patient monitors, and/or decreased to reduce the information content displayed. Preferably, the overview area can only be reduced in size until a predefined minimum, which still enables to overview the other patient monitors.
In another preferred embodiment, the overview area provides entry points for operations to get more information from a related patient monitor and/or to involve a remote operation (e.g. a button to silence an alarm or to show a window to change alarm limits).
It is clear that the invention can be partly or entirely embodied by one or more suitable software programs, which can be stored on or otherwise provided by any kind of data carrier, and which might be executed in or by any suitable data processing unit.